Intel is showing up all over the Mobile World Congress 2013 show in Barcelona and has also officially announced its new generation of Atom CPUs aimed at tablets and smartphones, the Clovertrail+.

Intel is sort of mixing things up with its codenames and while the Lexington platform is rather lonely in the value smartphone market, the performance market is getting quite crowded and confusing. After all, we are talking about Intel.

As you may remember, Medfield was Intel's 32nm Atom SoC aimed at smartphones, while 32nm Clover Trail was aimed at Windows 8 tablets. The new 32nm Clover Trail+ is aimed at perfomancesmartphone as well as tablets.

Essentially Clover Trail+ is an upgraded Medfield platform that adds a second Saltwell based CPU core and keeps the Hyper Threading support so you practically have four threads with the new Clover Trail+. The GPU also got updated to PowerVR SGX544MP2 which has much more power than the SGX540 used in the Medfield. The SGX544MP2 is quite similar to the SGX543MP4 GPU found in the Apple A5X chip but has double triangle performance. It features 8 SIMDs, and offers 34.1GFLOPS of performance at its reference clock.

As noted, we are looking at three different SKUs. The top part, the Atom Z2580 is clocked at up to 2.0GHz while the SGX544MP2 GPU can boost up to 533MHz. Next in line is the T2560 with up to 1.6GHz clock and same GPU that works 400MHz while the last one is the Atom Z2520 clocked at up to 1.2GHz with the SGX544MP2 clocked at 300MHz.

The new platform supports LPDDR2 2x32-bit 1066MHz memory interface, can do 1080p@30fps encode and decode, has WUXGA (1920x1200) display support, 16- and 2-megapixel primary and secondary camera with support for continuous shooting and mobile HDR and features XMM 6360 modem.

With the introduction of the new platform, Intel also updated the reference platform adding Android 4.2 Jelly Bean support, and of course, Intel Clover Trail+ chipset.

Nomura analyst Romit Shah believes Intel’s Medfield doesn’t have what it takes to take on the likes of Qualcomm and other ARM players in the smarpthone space.

Shah points to Motorola’s Razr i and Razr M as an example. Although the Intel based version seems competitive at first glance, once you factor in the added power drain of LTE, Medfield starts to lose its edge.

Shah noted that the Intel based handset lacks LTE, which consumes 25 to 30 percent more power than 3G radios.

“This difference could explain the 10-15% better battery life for the RAZR-I,” wrote Shah. Furthermore, he goes on to conclude that Medfield doesn’t seem to be ahead in terms of performance, either. The latest high-end Android and WP8 phones are based on ARM SoCs, and the fastest among them feature Snapdragon S4 quad-cores.

Shah points out that Intel has an advantage in some web browser tests, but that’s pretty much where the good news ends.

“While Medfield appears to have superior performance on SunSpider (50% better than Snapdragon), it scored below Snapdragon and Tegra 3 on the other two benchmarks,” he wrote.

Intel’s next generation 22nm SoCs could turn things around, but they will also face obstacles. Shah believes convincing customers to split R&D resources between two architectures won’t be easy. Furthermore, OEMs would have to rely to a single x86 chip supplier, rather than several different ARM players.

Intel has confirmed that it will be running behind the other mobile chipmakers with LTE adoption.

It seems that the lack of LTE is making it difficult for Chipzilla to flog its Medfield chips in the US. Apparently, the only company that can get away with flogging LTE-less phones is Apple, which only recently put one out.

According to TechCrunch, Sumeet Syal, Intel’s Director of Product Marketing, confirmed that 4G support is in the pipeline. However, it will not be ramping up until 2013.

But that is not the only place that Intel is behind the rest of the pack. App compatibility is another area where Intel is having to play catch up.

Intel said that it is working closely with Google to optimize its chip architecture for Android, since not all Android apps are compatible with Intel’s SoCs, including Google’s own Chrome for Android browser. Syal insisted that the “majority” of Android apps are compatible with Medfield chips but was not specific.

Rumours of an Intel-based Motorola handset have been swirling around for weeks and now the phone is finally official.

The Motorola RAZR i is basically a RAZR M with a 2GHz Intel chip inside. The 2GHz Medfield processor takes the place of Qualcomm’s S4 in this Euro phone and it is basically the first big Intel phone launch in Europe.

The rest of the spec remains unchanged, a 4.3-inch edge-to-edge screen in a tiny Kevlar coated package, with a 2000mAh battery and 8-megapixel camera.

Of course, the big news here is the processor, so let’s stick to that. Engadget reports that the chip is optimized for browsing, with a special emphasis on Java. Gaming should also benefit from the new chip, but we still have to see how the Medfield compares to Krait in real life tests.

It’s not a Nexus, but the RAZR i comes with an unlocked bootloader, NFC and Android Beam support, but it is still unclear whether the phone will launch with Android 4.0 or 4.1. The RAZR M was demoed with Jelly Bean, but launched with ICS. In any case, both phones will probably end up running Jelly Bean in a couple of months one way or the other.

A few were surprised that Intel didn’t mention the phone business at the IDF keyone. The phone market has become a huge deal for Intel and despite significant leaps and the first design wins, Intel chose not to mention this at all.

The general feeling is that Intel won’t talk about phones at all and that this part of business will probably align with big phone oriented trade shows like CES in the US or Mobile World congress in Barcelona. Here in San Francisco, at IDF 2012 they didn’t talk about it at all.

Tomorrow's keynote from Renée James, Senior Vice President General Manager, Software and Services Group is titled "Security and Services in an Age of Transparent Computing" and we are quite sure that it won’t include a showcase of next generation phone silicon.

Current phones have a CPU core codenamed Penwell and a system-on-chip called Medfield, while the next generation is codenamed Silvermont for the CPU and the ScC is called Merrifield.

From what we know Silvermont is 22nm and should come next year. All these details came from sources a while ago and haven’t changed since and Intel didn’t talk on the record about any phone stuff.

Intel has admitted that it is working with 10 undisclosed Chinese and global vendors to design Windows 8 tablets using the company's chips. Intel China chairman Sean Maloney told the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing that there will be many Intel-based tablets by the end of this year.

The tablets will use the Z2460 code-named "Medfield" which has been built for smartphones and tablets. Chinese PC maker Lenovo's has already said it will be releasing the K800 handset which will be the first smartphone to use an Intel processor. This will be sold in China at the end of May. Intel is also developing Clover Trail, which is designed for tablets and is scheduled to arrive this year. The chip features a 1.8 GHz processor.ZTE also plans to launch a smartphone using Intel chips during the second half of this year.

Maloney said that Chipzilla was developing two other Atom chips for smartphones. The Intel Atom Z2580 will offer twice the performance of the Medfield chip. The Atom Z2000 has a 1.0 GHz processor and is positioned for the lower end of the market.

There has been some rumbling regarding Orange's move to be one of the first to officially go for Intel's Medfield chip and finally some specs and pictures have showed up online. Orange is the first to announce and later ship Intel powered phones in Europe.

Although it looks like Intel's reference device that was previously seen at CES 2012, Orange version looks a bit more polished. The specs include Intel's Atom Z2460 CPU paired up with Intel XMM 6260 HSPA+ loving platform. The chip is placed behind 4.03-inch 600x1024 screen and packs 8MP back, with support for 1080p and 1.3MP front camera.

The dimensions of the new Orange, "Orange Santa Clara" codenamed, smartphone are set at 123x63x9.99mm and it weighs in at 117g. The rest of currently known specs also includes Bluetooth 2.1, A-GPS, 802.11bgn WiFi and 16GB of storage space. Unfortunately, the new smartphone will hit retail/e-tail with Android Gingerbread OS while ICS update is planed to follow "shortly thereafter".

According to Orange, the device will be exclusive to Orange customers in the UK and France. Intel also started an advertising campaign at European version of Wall Street Journal to support this brave move from Orange. Since Orange branded phones are usually much cheaper than the better branded competition, this kind of backs our story that Intel goes for the affordable market, here.

Intel was very public about the fact that Medfield is coming to a tablet near you as soon as Q2 2012, but it’s been mum on quite a few details.

The new tablet chip will definitely end up in at least a few phones and tablets and it features a Penwell SoC 32nm core based on Atom architecture. It supports LPDDR2 memory, dual camera with up to 16MP, as well as an SGX540 graphics core for 2D and 3D acceleration.

When it comes to video support, Intel’s chip for tablets can cope with 1080p encoding and 1080p dual stream video decoding. The operating system of choice is Android 4.0 and tablets based on the reference design can also support WiDi. On a separate note, at least some of Intel’s next generation netbooks will also feature WiDi support and it seems Intel is keen to embrace the new technology.

Intel also pays a lot of attention to security in its chips and Medfield comes with a built-in security engine, remote wipe capability, protected memory and protected apps.

The system on chip known as Atom Z2610 supports HDMI, USB 2.0, LP Audio and a few other things. This chip should get comparable battery life to ARM-based Android 4.0 tablets and hybrid devices and the rest of the spec should also be quite similar.

The release window is Q2 2012, so April to late July should be the time we will see the first Medfield tablets in retail. One more thing, Atom Z2610 is an Android 4.0 oriented chip and Intel has something special for Windows 8, but not this particular Medfield 32nm SOC.

We just got some information on the name and specs of Intel’s upcoming Medfield tablet platform and we can continue unwrapping the story of Intel’s next generation mobile chips.

The plan is to launch the first tablets in Q2 2012 and according to current schedule Intel us currently in the alpha stage of development that should end by late March, or end of Q1 2012. In April Intel should be getting to beta and by the middle of Q2 2012 it should be ready to release hardware and software. Of course, this all depends on stability of drivers under Android 4.0, the reference OS.

The reference Red Ridge tablet should be around 8.5 mm thin (0.33-inch), weigh under 1.5 pounds (less than 680 grams), pack a 28Whr battery that should last some 9 plus hours and it will feature a 10-inch 200 nits panel. Intel claims an impressive standby time of more than 30 days which sounds quite great. Intel also claims best in class flash as well as connected standby support.

Before we go any further just remind you that the reference Oak Trail Atom Z670 platform had 6+ hours battery life, was supposed to weigh less than 1.5 pounds, all packed in a sub-15mm chassis, almost twice as much as Red Ridge. It shared the 30-day standby claim.

The reference tablet has 1GB of memory but clock speeds or storage memory configuration have not been disclosed thus far. Since SGX540 is the GPU of choice for Medfield this means that Apple’s A5 ends up much faster when it comes to graphics performance but Intel hopes that its single core can outperform most dual and even some quad-cores, especially in some tasks on modern tablets, i.e. apps that rely on single core performance.

All we can do is wait for the second quarter and see what Intel can do with the Red Ridge platform. With Windows 8 and Intel x86 chips on the way, 2012 promises to be a pretty eventful year for the tablet market.

A rather talkative chap at Intel's CES booth told us that Medfield Atom should get two successors very soon.

Intel should have its 22nm dual-core successor ready already in second part of 2012. Intel claims that single core Medfield at 1.6GHz defeats most of the dual chips based on ARM. We’ve seen a demo of an Intel iPhone 4 looking demo unit, and HD 1080p, Video even with 360 degree content as well as games worked just fine.

Looks promising, but sources close to ARM are telling us that they have a much higher idle power than most ARM processors. Things get even more interesting as at some point in 2013, Intel will have a quad-core Atom for tablets.

We do believe that the Intel chap got a bit too excited and that the chip is again 22nm rather than new 14nm based, but it’s still too early to tell. Intel could have 14nm production ready for the latter part of 2013, but its 22nm production will definitely be mature at this point.